Pokemon Genesis Version
by Flaz S
Summary: The soon to be Pokemon Trainer, Jack, leaves Olivine for New bark town to collect his starter pokemon and finally become a pokemon trainer. On the way through Johto he'll run into many friends, human and pokemon alike and many battles will take place.
1. The Journey of a Thousand Miles

** Hope you enjoy the story.  
**

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Chapter One: The Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts with a Single Step.**

"What time are we leaving!?" A young boy yelled on his way down the stairs, with only one arm in his black t-shirt and his grey jacket dragging along the floor. He eventually managed to get his head through the neck of his t-shirt along with his arm, he wore blue jeans, and had scruffy, medium length brown hair along with black rimmed glasses over his brown eyes. "Mum!?" he shouted again as he slid into the kitchen on his white socks.

"What was that, Jack?" His mother turned from the kettle, she was a short woman, with the same hair and eye colour as Jack's.

"When are we leaving?" the ten year old repeated as he slam dunked some bread into the toaster.

"We'll set off in five minutes, the plane to Cherrygrove leaves in forty five minutes." She said calmly as she poured the boiled water into a cup.

Jack groaned and looked at the clock, ten past nine. He caught the toast as it popped up and ate it as though he was a starved Garchomp. His mother laughed. "Whut?" he spluttered, his cheeks looking like those of a Bibarel, he swallowed the whole thing in one go and was about to leave the room until his mother spoke.

"You know I was talking to Jasmine last night."

"Mm? What'd she say?" Jack suddenly became interested.

"She said you'd go far, that you'd make a good trainer. Not much else, you can't really get much out of that girl. Very shy. A lot like you, actually."

"Cool!" Jack beamed. The thought that a gym leader thought that he would do well filled him with pride. Jasmine was the fifth gym leader of Johto, the gym was not for away from Jack's house. He'd battle her one day, battle and defeat 'The Steel-Clad Defense Girl' herself. Jack beamed even more at this idea.

Freshly inspired, he ran into the living room to find his pokemon book, it was on the shelf as always. He grabbed it and thumbed through to the page he wanted, 'Traditional Starter Pokemon'. There were twelve to choose from, Jack looked desperately, trying to choose between the colourful, attractive, and undoubtedly powerful pokemon, he eventually narrowed it down to two of them.

"Cyndaquil or Mudkip..." he muttered to himself, "The fire mouse, or the mud fish?".

"Jack."

"Huh?" the boy woke up from his daydreaming to see his mother, already in her coat.

"Time to go." she said, smiling.

Jack's heart skipped a beat, he stuffed his book back on the shelf and grabbed his grey jacket and slipped into his black shoes, stuffing the shoe laces in the sides.

The next half hour was chaotic, the ticket line was ridiculously long and the crowds were terrible, today was the day that all ten year olds got their starter pokemon, and most were headed to the same place: New Bark Town, where they would recieve one of the twelve starters.

"Well, of you go honey." Jack's mum patted him on the back outside the aeroplane.

"What? You're not coming with me?" Jack said, his eyes wide with shock.

"No, this is your adventure now." she kissed him on the forehead, "Good luck."

Jack hesitantly walked across to the plane, waving his mother goodbye. He took a look at his ticket and found the corresponding seat. Upon looking around the plane while the stewerdess was talking and saw that almost everyone there, excluding security and the stewerdesses, were his age, some looking as nervous as he was and some jumping around excitedly, already making new friends, he had to admire that.

The plane was almost full, but luckily the two seats next to him were some of the only ones with no one in them, he was a little shy with new people. He looked outside to see the ground moving, the plane was finally taking off!

"Bye bye, Olivine." he whispered as the plane began to lift off the ground, waving off his home town.

The plane ride wasn't long, no more than an hour or two, but it felt like several sunlit days to Jack, he thanked his stars when the plane finally touched the ground.

There was a flood of passengers as the plane door opened, Jack, unfortunately, was caught in it, and had to do his best not to be crushed until the crowd dispersed outside the airport. There were planes from a number of other cities too, making the crowd even worse. He looked around, Cherrygrove City, all that was left to be done now was the short trip to New Bark. He waited behind the pokemon centre for about ten minutes to let the crowd disperse, and then popped his head out.

"Hey, you!" He flinched as a voice came from his left, he swung his head around suddenly to see a young girl - his age walking over. "Are you here to get your starter?" she asked as she approached.

"Erm, yeah." He said shyly, "Why are you still here?" he paused for a moment, thinking about what he had said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound-"

"It's okay," the girl cut him off, "There was a problem with my luggage, it's okay now though." she said cheerfully. "Come on, the crowd's gone now, and I need some company." she took his hand and pulled him from the shadow of the pokemon centre. The girl had pink hair which was in two plaits and a full fringe. Her eyes were blue. She wore a long purple strap top and white shorts along with purple running shoes and white socks, she carried a white shoulder bag and had a pink pokebelt. "What's your name?" she asked as the two began on thier way.

"Jack," Jack said simply, " I'm from Olivine." he added, "You?"

"My name's Ruby, from Cainwood." she said, "You don't talk much do you?"

"I guess not." he shrugged as they entered Route 29. He looked around, the scenery was beautiful, in a different way to the seaside view of Olivine, much greener. Sentrets, Hoppips and Rattatas, roamed around, but none bothered them, it wouldn't be long until he would be catching them - and using them to beat Jasmine. He decided to break the short silence, "So what pokemon are you gonna choose?"

Ruby thought for a moment, "I think Bulbasaur, or Cyndaquil! I can't really choose."

"Hmm, I was gonna go for Cyndaquil."

"Cool!" She smiled. She opened her mouth to say more but was cut off as something knocked her over.

"Wow that's a big rat!" Jack commented as he helped Ruby up.

"What is it!?" she she yelled, brushing herself off.

"A Raticate, I think." Jack squinted, he had read a few books in his time, "But looks... angry..."

The Raticate's teeth began to glow and it lunged for Ruby again, she managed to smack it away using her bag. "That was a Hyper Fang attack!" Jack said in awe.

"I don't care what attack it is!" Ruby yelled as she rolled and jumped up to avoid another attack.

"No, that's a high level attack! There should be nothing here above level ten!" He yelled back, pulling her away from a third attack. The two had backed up against a tree, and the Raticate ran in for a final attack.

To both Jack and Ruby's shock, something green swooped across them, hitting the Raticate, which immediately fled.

"So what's that one?" Ruby turned to Jack.

"Not sure." he said. "I think... Vibrava?"

"Flygon, return!" A woman's voice came from a few meters away.

The woman had sleek, black hair that fell to the middle of her back, her scruffy fringe was just above her eyes and her ears were covered. She also wore a white top with a black Pokéball insignia on it, and skin tight black trousers that covered the tops of her white and black sneakers. Jack thought she looked like she was in her late teens.

"You kids okay?" She asked.

"Erm, yeah, thanks." Ruby replied, Jack just nodded.

"On your way to New Bark Town?"

"Yup, can you take us there?" Ruby asked cheerfully, this girl didn't mince her words, however, the woman twitched a smile and nodded. She lead Jack and Ruby away. "So what's your name?" Ruby asked.

"Melissa, I'm helping Professor Elm with all of the new trainers today."

"Oh." The two ten year olds said at the same time.

They walked for about half an hour, on the way Jack told Melissa about the Raticate that attacked them, the older trainer dismissed it as 'unusual, but not unheard of'. They saw many excited looking trainers walking back to Cherrygrove on the way.

"We're here." she said. She looked back to the two ten year olds behind her but found only two clouds of smoke in their shape. Looking forward, she saw the two sprinting towards Professor Elm's lab.

"I'm gonna get there first!" Ruby yelled.

"We'll see!" Jack yelled back.

When the two arrived at the large doors of the lab - at about the same time, nerves hit them and they stood infront of it, hesitating to enter.

"Let's go in at the same time." Jack suggested.

"Yeah, sounds good to me." Ruby replied after taking a deep breath.

"One, two, three!" the two soon to be trainers said in synchronisity, grinning as they pushed the large double doors open eager to obtain their first of what would be many pokemon.

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** Wow! This chapter pretty much wrote itself! Ruby belongs to xPikachu-Princessx, Melissa belongs to Stabberz.  
**


	2. Choices are the Hinges of Destiny

** Chapter Two: Choices are the Hinges of Destiny.  
**

The doors opened to reveal the inside of the renowned Professor Elm's laboratory. It was a large room, with scientists studying on both sides of it, a number of complex looking machines and computers were all over the place and at the end of the room was a table full of Pokeballs.

"Hm. You two are a little late." A kind sounding voice came from next to them. The man had short, brown hair, large glasses and a clean, white lab coat, he looked suprisingly young to be working in a place like this, "I'm Professor Elm, you may have heard of me." he continued.

Jack and Ruby nodded with both nervousness and eagerness, the professor smiled and motioned for the two to follow him. He lead them to the large table at the back of the room which had twelve pokeballs with pictures of the pokemon inside behind them. Jack's eyes strayed to Cyndaquil, then Mudkip. How could he choose!?

"Ah, Melissa." Professor Elm greeted the young woman as she finally caught up. "I'm sure you can take it from here."

Melissa nodded as the professor walked away to argue with one of his colleagues, Melissa walked around to the other side of the table and waved her hand at the pokeballs, "I presume you know what to do. You can choose one of the twelve pokemon here, choose wisely, the pokemon you choose now will most likely be with you for the rest of your life."

No pressure, then. Jack thought.

Ruby was the first to step forward, "I choose Bulbasaur." she pointed to the pokeball on the far left and picked it up. She looked at it for a couple of seconds and smiled, rather satisfied.

"And you? Jack, is it?" Melissa asked.

Jack finally decided. "Cyndaquil!" He said, grinning. He grabbed the pokeball and looked at the button on the front.

"Wait until you get outside to open it, please." The older trainer said, pointing the door. "Here are your Pokedexes." she handed Jack a a red one and Ruby a pink one.

"Does it come in blue?" Jack asked.

"No." Melissa replied coldly.

Jack sighed, but after remembering the item in his hand, he followed Ruby, who was already running outside.

"Go, Bulbasaur!" She yelled as soon as the doors were open, tossing her new pokeball in the air, it opened and a white light flashed as the pokeball returned to his hand, the light faded to reveal her Bulbasaur. It looked around, looking somewhat confused, but as soon as it set eyes on Ruby it lept on her, knocking her over as she giggled. "Hello little guy!" She said as she got up, it merely grinned at her and spoke in it's own language: "Bulba!"

"Nice!" Ruby turned around to see Jack behind her, he handed her five pokeballs, "You forgot these." he said. She clipped them to her pink belt and admired herself.

"Your turn." She said to Jack, who looked at his pokeball and grinned.

"Come on out, Cyndaquil!" He threw the pokeball into the air as Ruby had done, and the same sort of light burst from it, in it's wake appeared a Cyndaquil. Jack looked at it, beaming, and knelt down. "Hey little guy." he put out his hand and the little pokemon squeaked and flinched. "That's weird." he said.

Ruby's Bulbasaur approached Cyndaquil and greeted it with a friendly "Saur!" but the fire mouse squeaked louder and hid behind Jack's jeans, clinging on to them for dear life.

"It's a coward..." He said, looking down on it. Ruby replied with an understanding 'Mm' as she picked up her Bulbasaur, which was trying to lick her.

"Come here buddy." Despite the Cyndaquil's efforts, Jack picked it up, it looked at him, terrified. "It's ok, do you want some food?" He asked it warmly as he reached for his bag.

"Gah!" he yelled. Scaring the life out of the poor little Cyndaquil.

"What!?" Ruby shrieked, "Is something wrong!?"

"I forgot my bag!" he groaned as he returned the Cyndaquil to it's pokeball.

"Oh... we could get some supplies at the Pokemon Centre." Ruby suggested.

"I guess so," Jack said, a little disappointed, almost all of his books were in that bag, and blankets, a thought then occurred. The next Pokemon Centre was in Cherrygrove. He groaned again.

"Hey, it's not far to Cherrygrove City." Ruby seemed to read his mind, she smiled warmly, "And Bulbasaur can protect us!" she squeezed Bulbasaur even tighter, the pokemon reacted with a little squeak of excitement. She pulled out her pokeball, "I'll let you out later buddy," she tapped the button and Bulbasaur disappeared in a flash of red light.

It took minutes for the two trainers to see their first pokemon on Route 29. A Starly!

"Whoa! Those are incredibly rare in this region!" Jack excitedly told Ruby. "It's mine!". He grabbed his pokeball and threw it, "Time too see what you can do Cyndaquil!"

Cyndaquil appeared once again, it seemed less scared of Jack this time, but then looked at Starly as though it were Gyarados. The small bird cocked it's head and chirped, sending Cyndaquil into it's standard position behind Jack's leg.

"Sorry, buddy." Ruby strutted past him cockily and winked at him, "I guess this one's mine. Bulbasaur!" She released her seed pokemon, which immediately ran to her side, rubbing it's head on her leg. "Come on Bulbasaur, tackle!"

Bulbasaur turned serious for a moment to attack the Starly. The tackle hit dead on, but the Starly soon recovered and used it's own tackle attack. Ruby ordered Bulbasaur to roll, and it did so immediately, causing the Starly to fly into a tree. After a final tackle, the Starly was unconscious. "Go, Pokeball!" she threw a pokeball from her belt and hit the Starly dead on, engulfing it in a red light. There were a tense few moments as the pokeball shook, the centre of it flashing red. But after what seemed like an entire era, the clicking sound that Ruby had been waiting for came from the pokeball, signifying that the Starly had been caught.

"Yes!" she shrieked, turning to Jack and presenting her new Starly in it's pokeball. "My first pokemon!". A second after this she was knocked over by her Bulbasaur once again, she gave it a hug, and returned it to it's pokeball.

"Yeah, yeah well done." Jack said, clapping slowly, he picked Cyndaquil up and carefully balanced it on his shoulder, it immediately tried to hide it's head in his t-shirt but he pulled it out. "Oh no, you're staying out here." he told it, but he let it cling onto his glasses and hair, it seemed to make it feel a little better.

On the rest of the way to Cherrygrove, Ruby let Bulbasaur battle four times, the young pokemon hardly got hit as the little Cyndaquil on Jack's shoulder watched in fascination.

"That's a pretty fast Bulbasaur you've got there." Jack commented as they walked into Cherrygrove Pokemon Centre.

"Well it's a pretty tired Bulbasaur right now." She looked at the pokeball and smiled, giving the pokeball and Starly's pokeball to a Nurse Joy, who put it into a machine that looked a lot like an oven, along with Cyndaquil, who had previously been returned to his pokeball. "How long will this take, Miss Joy?" Ruby asked what Jack was a little too shy to.

"Not long, only an hour dear." the pink haired nurse answered sweetly, "Oh," she looked at Jack, "What's your name?"

"Jack." he answered nervously.

"From Olivine?"

"That's me."

"Oh, great!" Nurse Joy smiled. "We've received something for you." She retreated into the back room as Jack and Ruby exchanged confused looks. Joy returned after a few seconds and handed Jack a black rucksack, his black rucksack!

"Wow, thanks!" Jack smiled as he opened it, yes, everything was there, "How did you-"

"Magnemite!" A computerised yet excited voice came from the Magnemite that had just popped up from under Joy's desk.

"Hey, pal!" Jack patted the Magnemite, which let out a sort of magnetic sounding purr.

"You know this pokemon?" Ruby asked.

"Sure I do, it belongs to Jasmine, you know from the Olivine Gym?"

"You know Jasmine!?" Ruby shrieked.

"Well..." Jack bobbed his head from side to side, "My mum knows her mum." The magnemite nodded, and left the Pokemon centre, undoubtedly for it's own home.

About half an hour later, the two could be found sat on chairs in the pokemon centre waiting room. Jack was browsing through his Pokedex while Ruby was trying to juggle her remaining four pokeballs. "You sure you don't want to read?" Jack asked, "I have a few books in my bag."

"I've never really been one for books, I don't know what people see in reading." She grinned, "Why don't you try juggling, you'll have one more pokeball than me."

"Shut up."

Not much happened for the next half hour, until Nurse Joy handed them their Pokeballs, "Take care!" she said kindly as they left the Pokemon Centre.

Not a minute had passed after they left the Pokemon Centre when a young girl approached them. She had long, brown hair down to her waist, bright green eyes and pale skin. Her hair was held back by silver and blue hair clips. She was also wearing elbow length black gloves, a black tank top with a yellow and blue star, black shorts, yellow knee length socks and black shoes. The girl smiled, "Hey! Are you two pokemon trainers?" Jack and Ruby smiled and nodded. "My name's Crysta, want a battle?"

"You're on!" Ruby announced excitedly. She felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Jack.

"Could we have this one?" he asked, holding up Cyndaquils pokeball.

"Ok, good luck!" She giggled and patted him on the shoulder.

"If you two are done kissing..." Crysta threw a pokeball in the air, a Charmander emerged from the following light, "Charm and I would like to get this started!"

"I'm not even gonna comment on that one." Jack muttered as he released Cyndaquil. "Ready now Cyndaquil?"

"Quil?" The little pokemon squeaked nervously.

"Come on, you saw Bulbasaur fight right? You'll do fine, I believe in you."

"Quil!" Cyndaquil perked up a bit, and positioned itself infront of Charm.

"Ok, lets do this! Charm, use ember!" Crysta ordered.

"Roll, Cyndaquil!" On Jack's order, Cyndaquil rolled out of the way as it had seen Bulbasaur do earlier. "Nice! Now Ember!"

"Cynda?" Cyndaquil turned to him with a confused and scared look on it's face.

"What do you mean you can't use ember?" Jack said, almost horrified.

"Charm, scratch!" yelled Crysta. Charm ran in before Cyndaquil could react and got a critical hit. Cyndaquil fainted. "Heh. Easy!" Crysta mocked.

Jack sighed and looked at the unconscouis Cyndaquil, "I'm so sorry, buddy."

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** Thank you so much for all of the reviews, keep them coming and thanks for reading! **


	3. Speculate to Accumulate

**Chapter Three: Speculate to Accumulate.  
**

Jack felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach as he waited in the pokemon centre for Cyndaquil to wake up, Nurse Joy had wrapped it up in a small blanket and let it rest on the table next to Jack. Ruby's Bulbasaur was sat next to it, staring and Ruby herself was next to Jack. The only good thing that seemed to have happened today was the small meal that the pokemon centre had supplied them with.

"Look it wasn't your fault," Ruby tried to comfort him.

"It was... ah, look here." Jack pointed to a line in his book and read from it, "'Cyndaquil cannot learn Ember at a very young age, it must be taught, or learned during the course of it's life.'" he nodded and sighed, looking back at Cyndaquil, "I made an amateur mistake."

"Everyone does it now and again." Ruby patted him on the shoulder.

_"Cynda!"_ the cry came from a newly awoken Cyndaquil, who looked shocked to find a Bulbasaur looming over it and dived under the table, cowering as the curious Bulbasuar poked it's head under from on top.

"Hey, Cyndaquil." Jack said kindly, slowly reaching out to pet the pokemon. Cyndaquil growled, making Jack retreat, "He growled at me!" Jack said in disbelief to Ruby.

"Maybe you're taking the wrong approach." The two looked away from Cyndaquil to see a trainer, in his mid teens, maybe sixteen or seventeen, he bent down and offered Cyndaquil some pokemon food, Cyndaquil looked up at the trainer and at the food, then slowly and hesitantly ate a peice. The fire mouse paused for a moment and started to eat eagerly. The trainer looked up, his hair was white, fairly short and spiked up, he had deep blue eyes and tanned skin and wore a blue shirt with a black vest over it along with black long trousers and white sneakers. "Shy pokemon usually like sweet food. You try it." he handed over what was left of the food and Jack, without asking questions Jack presented the food to Cyndaquil, the pokemon continued to tuck in, seeming to hardly notice that the food had changed hands.

"Who are you?" Ruby asked.

"Call me J.D, I'm a pokemon collector, so I know my stuff." he looked at Jack, who was cautiously patting Cyndaquil, "I saw your battle, that's a good Cyndaquil you have there."

"I know, it's just me." Jack replied quietly, leaving Cyndaquil to sit back in his chair, Cyndaquil then seemed to go and have a conversation with Bulbasaur.

"It's just your approach. With each pokemon you need a different battle style, to suit that pokemon." J.D explained.

"I suppose so." Jack said, lifting his head up.

J.D nodded and paused for a moment, then asked, "If I could use your Cyndaquil to battle with you, I could show you."

"That sounds good. But I don't have any other pokemon."

"I do." Ruby looked up from Bulbasaur who was sat on her lap making an odd purring noise, and continued, "We can fight you."

"Great." J.D bent down and put his arm out to Cyndaquil, "If you would, my friend."

Cyndaquil hesitated, and looked up and down at the trainer, Jack stared in disbelief as Cyndaquil crawled up J.D's arm and onto his shoulder. "Well what are we waiting for?" Ruby said, grinning and running outside, quickly followed by Jack and J.D.

"Cyndaquil? I want you to trust me." J.D petted the pokemon before putting it down, Ruby and her Bulbasaur were already prepared to battle. "You first."

"Bulbasaur, tackle!" Ruby went for a head on attack and Bulbasaur complied, charging at Cyndaquil.

J.D waited until the last second to give Cyndaquil it's order, "Jump over it!"

"It can't..." Jack tailed off as Cyndaquil leaped clean over Bulbasaur, landing right behind it, startling the seed pokemon.

"You assumed it couldn't." J.D grinned, "Now, tackle!" Cyndaquil did as told, getting a good, hard hit on Bulbasaur, sending it flying for at least five feet. Bulbasaur made a quick recovery.

"I think you ought to have learned this by now." Ruby grinned. "Vine whip!" two large vines erupted from Bulbasaurs sides and flew towards Cyndaquil, and, picking it up, despite it's struggling. "Throw it!" Ruby yelled. J.D did nothing.

"J.D!"

"I know what I'm doing." J.D cut Jack off. He waited for Bulbasaur to lift Cyndaquil over it's head, ready to throw it. "Smokescreen, straight forwards!"

Cyndaquil eventually managed a weak smokescreen, one without flames erupting from it's back, it was still a bit young for that. But the propulsion from the attack sent Cyndaquil spinning around, which made Bulbasaur's vine get tangled up, forcing it to release Cyndaquil. The startled Bulbasaur could do nothing before the smoke from the previous attack descended on it. "Now, use tackle from the air!" J.D yelled. Cyndaquil responded with an immediate and clever recovery from the air and ended up slamming straight into Bulbasaur's back. As the smoke dispersed, Cyndaquil could be seen next to Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil sat happily and proudly as Bulbasaur lay knocked out on the ground.

"Great job, buddy!" Jack yelled as Cyndaquil lept into his arms, it's win seemed to have boosted it's confidence significantly, as there wasn't a hint of fear on the it's face as it clambered up onto Jack's head. He turned to J.D, "How did you do that?"

"Cyndaquil is among the fastest of the starters. Notice that I didn't once use a direct attack." He smiled, "I'm going back to the pokemon centre."

"Why don't you come with us?" Jack asked, J.D shook his head.

"I'm staying here for a while, word has it there's a legendary pokemon that has been sighted around here, Raikou. I'd love to see it. But I might see you around."

"I'm sure we will!" Ruby interrupted, cradling Bulbasaur in her arms, it had woken up and was making it's usual purring noise. "And then," she grinned, "We'll have a rematch."

J.D laughed as he walked away.

Ruby turned to Jack, "I suppose we should set up camp, it's getting dark."

"Are you kidding? Night is one of the best times for rare pokemon!"

Ruby laughed and nodded, and the two began on their way to Route 30.

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**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, reviews are appreiciated. J.D belongs to Kyte Nerox  
**


	4. Never Judge a Book by it's Cover

**Chapter Four: Never Judge a Book by it's Cover.  
**

"So have you got a tent in that bag?"

"Yeah."

"Good, 'cause I'm not sharing."

"Such a shame." Jack said with a sarcastic grin, he and Ruby had been walking for almost an hour, and not many pokemon could be seen. A Hoppip had flown past earlier but was gone before either if them could grab their pokeballs. He made a pathetic attempt at scratching his back, he didn't get far thanks to his backpack.

"Can you stop doing that? You look like you have flees or something." Ruby slapped his arm.

"It's been itching for about half an hour!" Jack whined, rubbing his arm. "I can't itch it because of my backpack, can you take a look?"

"No! You might have some... rash or something."

"Come on!" Jack whined further. Ruby gave up.

"Ok, come here." she sighed as he took his backpack off an lifted the back of his jacket and t-shirt up, "Wargh!" she jumped back and hit a tree.

"What!? What!?" Jack jumped forward and flung his bag somewhere, panicking and not doing much more than running around in circles.

Ruby recomposed herself, "Sorry, I over reacted."

"Oh?" Jack stopped immediately, "What is it then, a rash?"

"No, no." She said casually, "There's a Spinarak under your shirt."

"A what!?" He almost screamed.

"Well it might have been a Caterpie." She said calmly. Jack yelled and pulled his clothes off, almost tearing them **(Only the upper ones *gives evils*)**. He jumped back as a small, spider like pokemon crawled out, it was a Spinarak indeed. And to him, a damned ugly one, it squeaked and scuttled away in a sickening manner, leaving Jack breathing heavily. Ruby stood next to him, "You know it was just a bug."

"I hate bugs." Jack said bitterly.

"Aren't you cold?" Ruby noticed his jacket and t shirt on the floor.

"Absolutely freezing. Now help me find my bag."

She laughed and threw his jacket over him as he started to look around in the chilly September night.

About two hours after the Spinarak incident, and after a great struggle Jack and Ruby had managed to put their respective tents up in the dark. They had been unfortunate enough to not see any pokemon of great interest. Jack lay on his back, tucked up in his sleeping bag, he had released Cyndaquil who was sleeping on his stomach as he stroked it.

He was thinking about how eventful today had been, it was only this morning when he had set off from his house and received his Cyndaquil, who in just a day had grown more confident and happy towards him.

The thoughts were interupted as Jack heard a rustling outside, dismissing it as nothing, he rested his head back on the bag. The rustling came again, this time it sounded like scratching against the tent. "Ruby? That you?" he almost whispered this, but the rustling immediately stopped, it must have been some sort of prank, he thought.

He had not rested his head for five seconds when he felt a tickle up his leg, "Cyndaqu-? Agh!" he yelled and dived out of the tent, scaring poor Cyndaquil half to death. A Spinarak, presumably the same one as before, and found it's way in and was staring it him, an evil sort of smirk across it's grubby and horrific face. Jack clutched his heart and looked over to Ruby's tent. Her shadow could be seen from outside, he hadn't woken her up, good.

Jack braced himself and poked his head into the tent, it appeared that Cyndaquil and the Spinarak were having a nice little chat, to Jack though, it looked like the Spinarak was holding his young pokemon hostage, "Cyndaquil!" he yelled. The Spinarak, turned around and did a mouthless grin, but Cyndaquil seemed to jump out of it's skin, spraying a smokescreen throughout the small tent. Jack emerged, coughing as though he smoked fifty cigarettes a day, followed by the Spinarak, which disappeared into the bushes, and then Cyndaquil, who wandered out casually but with a somewhat confused look across it's face.

Jack sighed, "Sorry, buddy." he said as he bent down to pat Cyndaquil on the head, Cyndaquil's tiny eyes widened slightly. "What's up?" He asked.

Cyndaquil managed to reach it's little arm behind it's body and patted the top of it's head. Jack stared for a moment or two, and went to touch the back of his own head...

"You again!?" he yelled as he flung the Spinarak from on top of his head, it landed without taking any damage - unfortunately. The Spinarak made an odd, insect like clicking noise and scuttled off out of sight. Cyndaquil, seeming fascinated, followed it, and Jack followed Cyndaquil after grabbing his jacket, wanting to keep an eye on his pokemon. But a sudden voice from behind him made him jump:

"What are you doing? It's late." Jack swung around to see Ruby rubbing her eyes, she was wearing purple pyjamas and her pink hair was let down.

"You brought pyjamas?" Jack's mind strayed off topic for a few moments.

"Yes, I did, now why are you up?" She slurred, still rubbing her eyes.

"Follow me and we'll find out." Jack said, hurriedly looking the way that Cyndaquil had gone.

"Shouldn't we wear shoes?" Ruby turned back to the tent, her attempt to walk there failed as Jack grabbed her collar and dragged her away.

"No time."

Walking in the general direction that Cyndaquil had done, the two soon caught up. Spinarak seemed to be leading Cyndaquil somewhere. Jack was sure that the bug pokemon had no good intentions, but his curiosity got the better of him. The dark forest was unusually silent, and a number of eyes seemed to glare at them from the trees, Jack assumed that they were pokemon, like Hoothoot, although he was sure that he could see the odd Ghastly float past.

Jack soon noticed an eerie glow, a yellow one, making a particular clearing in the forest seem as light as day, and a quiet, yet noticeable, crackling noise was coming from that area.

It was all coming from beyond the tall bush infront of them, which Spinarak and Cyndaquil managed to crawl under. Jack and Ruby, after failing to do this, poked their heads out of the sides. And there it was.

Standing six feet tall, there was a yellow tiger-like creature with a white under-side and what looked like a purple cape on it's back. It had a brave, white face with a light-blue "X" on it and a grey crest on its forehead, a skinny, light-blue tail with a star-shaped formation at the end. Lightning emanating from it sending a crackling sound throughout the clearing. Many different pokemon had gathered around it in the surrounding forestry, keeping their distance.

Jack was astounded, he looked to Ruby to see that she, as well had her mouth wide open, he wanted to say something, but no words came. Ruby spoke first, "Can you see...?"

"Yes." replied Jack.

"Can you believe...?"

"No."

"Can we just go and touch...?"

"Do you want it to kill us both?" Jack grabbed Ruby's shoulder before she could stand up, he had read a lot about legendary pokemon and knew that after hundreds of years of humans trying to capture it, Raikou was not one of the friendliest pokemon.

Ruby took out her pink pokedex, being sure to turn the volume down to zero. Little letters cae up on the screen: _Raikou embodies the speed of lightning. Its roars send shock waves shuddering through the air and ground as if lightning bolts were crashing down. _It read. Looking up, Ruby saw that the sky was fairly clear, unusual - with a Raikou so close thunderbolts should be falling like rain. The Raikou must have been trying to keep a low profile, she couldn't help giggling a little as she thought this.

"Shush!" Jack yelled in a whisper. The Raikou turned it's head.

"Oh great job, moron!" Ruby raised her voice, Jack slapped his forehead.

The Raikou's eyes widened. Then it was gone, like a flash of lightning.

"Well, there goes my chance at catching a legendary pokemon." Ruby folded her arms and pouted.

"What, with Bulbasaur?" Jack taunted.

"I have a Starly too..." she muttered.

Jack heard a little whining noise and felt a small tugging on his jeans, upon looking down, expecting to see Cyndaquil, he flinched. The Spinarak was tugging at his jeans with it's mouth parts, he hesitated, and then patted it on the head - very gently. "You're alright." he watched it continue to chew on his jeans for a few moments, then said, "Run along now then." trying to sound nice despite being somewhat repulsed. The Spinarak got the message and ran out of sight once again. Perhaps that would be the last time it did so.

"Well, let's get back then." Jack said as he offered his arm to Cyndaquil, it crawled up and sat on his shoulder.

"Ok then," replied Ruby, starting to shiver.

"Have this." Jack threw his jacket over her shoulders.

"Thanks." she muttered through chattering teeth, the two said no more until they got back to their tents, where they then said goodnight and went to sleep.

Jack woke up and looked at Cyndaquil, it was curled up in the corner of the tent snoozing quietly. He reached next to him and put his glasses on before sitting up. Being very careful to not wake Cyndaquil, he opened the tent and crawled out.

Right into a web.

A spider web. A large, sticky web.

"You!" Jack yelled as a Spinarak, no, the Spinarak, crawled into view. If Jack didn't know better he could have sworn it just giggled. "Ah, you're a girl buggy pokemon." he nodded. And I admit it, a cute one. The Spinarak jumped around happily in reply.

"Nonetheless, my friend. Ruby!? Hel-!" Jack started shouting but was cut off by a string shot aimed at his mouth, stopping him from speaking. This Spinarak was clearly evil. He struggled for a few seconds before giving up, and merely glared at the Spinarak, which was just sat staring at him. It looked very amused.

Jack waited for at least half an hour - maybe less, but almost certainly more, until Ruby emerged from her tent with Bulbasaur and Starly, she yawned and admired the morning sun and laughed as a family of Sentrets and Furrets bounded past. She then turned to see Jack and let out a sharp but short scream. Jack replied with a muffled yell. Spinarak panicked and fled behind Jack, who didn't really enjoy it being on his leg.

"I'll get you out, Jack. Bulbasaur, vine whip!" on Ruby's order, Bulbasaur cut Jack down and Ruby immediately pulled the web from his mouth. He wiped it with his arm and glared at the Spinarak, which looked down.

"Come on, let's go." said Jack.

It took about twenty minutes to pack up all of the tents, Ruby finished stuffing the last part in her bag and said, "Are we off then?"

"Yep." Jack said, smiling, he put his rucksack on and they began to walk away. He hears a familiar clicking noise, and turned to see Spinarak a few feet away, looking rather said.

He held up an empty pokeball, "Want to come along?" the small Spinarak jumped for joy, ran over and started to try and eat his shoe again. Jack threw the pokeball at it softly, it engorged the Spinarak in a red light before resting on the ground. The button on the front flashed red for a few seconds before stopping. Jack smiled, although had some mixed emotions.

"Let's go then!" Jack said, trying to sound confident and ignoring Ruby's taunting grin. Ruby just nodded and the two continued on the way to Violet town.

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**I liked writing this chapter, it was inspired by a dream that I had a few days ago, spiders and worms everywhere *shivers***

**Anyway, about submitting OC's, it would be nice if you would review all of the chapters in this story rather than just submitting your OC. I'd like to distinguish between those who genuinely like the story and want to see their character in it and those who just want their OC's glorified. If you reviewed I think I would see it as more likely that you are interested.**

**Thanks for reading.**


	5. Curiosity Killed the Cat

**Chapter Five: Curiosity Killed the Cat.  
**

Violet City. It had taken hours to arrive there and it was almost getting dark, but the brilliant city could just be seen through the trees. The pokemon academy and the all important city Gym could be seen not far away. Jack knew it would only be a matter of time until he and Ruby would win the Zephyr badge, and soon after, the Elite Four.

"What do you mean we're not allowed in!?" Ruby screeched as the news came from a security gaurd stood outside of the city limits, causing Cyndaquil to fall off Jack's shoulder and pulling a clump of Jack's hair on the way.

"Sorry miss." A rather tall security guard looked down onto Ruby, who was giving him a death glare, apparently not deterred by the four foot height difference, "There's an infestation, so the entire city has been evacuated. You'll have to detour around to Azalea or Goldenrod."

"They're miles away!" Jack piped up, despite himself, as he felt fairly awkward as Ruby and the security guard stared at him, expecting more, "Well they are..."

Ruby ignored him, "What's the city infesterated with?"

"It's infestera-infested... with Weepinbell and Victreebell." The guard said, "Much stronger than normally found around here, and somewhat more agressive."

"Like the Raticate near New Bark..." muttered Jack.

"Not unlikely." he said, "We think the problem might have spread from Ecruteak, something is going on up there." the man seemed lost in thought for a moment, untill he saw the worried looks on Jack and Ruby's faces, "We have some top officers up there." he assured them.

Jack sighed and walked away, with Cyndaquil looking sad on his shoulder. Ruby soon caught up, "We're not seriously gonna leave are we?" she whispered close to his ear.

"No worries." Jack tapped his nose, "I have a cunning plan."

At that, Jack spun around, flinging Cyndaquil off of his arm, knowing what to do, the pokemon used smokescreen. Thick black smoke poured from it's mouth and covered everything nearby, and before the guards could react, Jack and Ruby fled into the trees toward the city.

Once in the city limits - after a few hundred metres of forest - the two walked through the abandoned city. Newspapers flew randomly around in the light breeze, abandoned and barely a sound could be heard.

"This must have been a bad infestation." Jack muttered looking around.

"Well there aren't any Weepinbell." Ruby pointed out, glancing behind her to double check.

"There wouldn't be." Jack thought to himself for a moment and spoke again, "Being grass type pokemon, I assume they'll all be huddled up somewhere, keeping warm. It's almost winter, right? They'd hate the cold."

Ruby shrugged as a reply.

"So, where are we going?" Jack asked, the two grounded to a halt, with all of the fuss of getting into the city, both had forgotten what they were doing.

"Do you think the Gym leader will still be here?" This time it was Jack's turn to shrug in reply.

Her question was answered immediately, through the medium of a Skarmory. The steel pokemon swooped past so fast that it was a blur, and so close that it trimmed part of Jack's fringe and disappeared behind a building. It was followed by a young, blue haired man, also wearing mostly blue. He did not even noticed the stunned Jack and Ruby as he ran past after his Skarmory.

"Was that him? Hey! Wait up!" Ruby yelled as she ran after him, dragging a hesitant Jack with her. They followed the man into a warehouse until he came to a stop.

"Kids!?" he yelled, spinning around as he noticed them. "What do you think you're doing!? The entire city of off limits, especially to rookies!"

"Oh, you didn't..." Ruby muttered through her teeth, Jack put his hand on her shoulder but she slapped it away, then yelled at Falkner; "What are you doing here!? There's nothing in this warehouse but masses of yellow grass!"

She appeared to be right. The warehouse floor was entirely yellow - and it seemed to ripple a bit.

"Oh..." Ruby muttered, after further inspecting the "floor". A strange sound - like rustling grass - could be heard as the mass of Weepinbell before them opened there eyes and quickly looked towards the two trainers and the Gym leader, startled, the entire mass spat a stream of thick, purple liquid at them.

Jack and Ruby screamed, but the Gym leader was quick to react, as he ordered his Skarmory to dive in front of them, the purple liquid didn't even make Skarmory blink as it ran off it's metallic feathers. "Acid attack, just bounces off a metal type pokemon." Falkner stated proudly.

"And now, we fight!" Ruby grinned, releasing Bulbasaur and Starly, both pokemon looked hyper and ready to fight in equal measure.

"Oh no you don't!" Falker ordered as he released his Pidgeot, "Take these two kids far away!" his Pidgeot obeyed straight away, grabbing Jack and Ruby with it's talons. Ruby had just enough time to return her pokemon before they were out of the warehouse and twenty feet off of the ground.

"No!" Ruby yelled, trying to free herself from the Pidgeot's iron grip. She tried this for about thirty seconds before Jack reminded her how high they were. She stopped immediately, of course.

Jack lost track of the amount of time that they were in the air, he was too busy wondering if Falkner was ok to worry himself with matters of time. Ruby on the other hand, had her arms crossed and seemed annoyed about losing a chance to fight. Nonetheless, they eventually touched ground outside of a Pokemon Centre. Strangely, the centre was not in a city, but surrounded by trees and grass, with a large cave entrance noticeable in the distance.

Falkner's Pidgeot merely dropped them on the floor and flew away seconds after, leaving Jack and Ruby to fumble around in the pitch black darkness for the Pokemon Centre door handle.

"Excuse me - pardon me - sorry..." Jack muttered this and other short apologies like it as he pushed through the overcrowded Pokemon Centre with Ruby in tow, eventually getting sick of having to hold her hand so she didn't get lost in the crowd, he let go - he would find her later on. As he got to the front desk he saw a clock, reading ten past eleven pm, and eventually the sign he was looking for:

_Pokemon Centre - Route 22: Violet City Union Cave_

Jack remembered from a book about the Union Cave that it was the quickest route to Azalea town, which was the location of another Gym! After hurriedly asking the nearest nurse if there was any room fo the night - which there was not - he went to find Ruby, they would need to find somewhere to set up camp soon.

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**I'm very sorry to the people who have been reading this story, this chapter is terrible, but I kept putting off doing it and then I forgot my ideas so I decided just to write it so I could get the ideas flowing again, and college hasn't helped. Hopefully the next chapter will be up pretty quickly, and will be of better quality.**


	6. Bravery and Idiocy

**Updated!

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**Chapter Six: There is a Fine Line Between Bravery and Idiocy.**

Jack woke up to the sight of his Spinarak, it was perched directly infront of his face. Without blinking, he backed away from it and took a deep breath.

"Aagh!" he screamed and dived out of the tent. Spinarak quickly followed him as Jack reached desperately for his pokeball, he backed up against a tree as Spinarak drew nearer, eventually finding it, he quickly returned the bug, which somehow appeared to be giggling.

After catching his breath, he put his t-shirt on and wandered to Ruby's tent. "Ruby? You have the food, right?" there was no reply. "C'mon, you're not still mad are you?" The previous night Jack had thwarted Ruby's attempt to return to Violet City with the clever use of Spinarak's String Shot. As you can imagine, the girl was not happy.

"Ok, I'm coming in, right?" Jack warned. After getting no reply he unzipped the small tent to find inside only a peice of paper, with Ruby's scruffy writing scrawled on it:

C_atch me this time, idiot :P_

_x_

"Uh oh." he muttered.

A few hours later found Jack and Cyndaquil on the route back to Violet City, it was a relatively straight path, with big fields either side and trees dotted around. Jack couldn't see Ruby anywhere in the distance, so she was either really far ahead or lost - he may have had the food, but Jack had the map. It was a sunny day, and so pokemon happily roamed around them, making Jack think. "Cyndaquil, when was our last battle?"

_"Quil." _Cyndaquil squeaked.

"Good idea! Just because we're in a rush doesn't mean we can't train too."

_"Quil."_

"I know you can't talk, but pretending you do helps me think."

_"Cynda."_

"Yeah, me too." Jack came to a stop near a flock of Mareep. "D'you think you could take one of those?"

_"Cyndaquil!"_ the fire mouse nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright!" Jack yelled, "Use smokescreen to seperate the herd!" Cyndaquil sprayed a thick stream of smoke from it's mouth, which covered the flock of about fifteen. The flock spread out, and as the smoke dissapated, about three of the smallest Mareeps were left in a panic, Cyndaquil used a tackle on the one closest to them as the others fled. "Okay, tackle again!" Jack ordered, Cyndaquil complied, hitting the young Mareep in the side and causing it to fall over. The Mareep recovered quickly and used Thundershock - or Thunderbolt, Jack couldn't tell - but it didn't matter because the speedy Cyndaquil rolled out of harms way.

"And one more smokescreen to disorientate it!" Cyndaquil did as told, impairing the Mareep's vision with another cloud of smoke. Jack unclipped an empty pokeball from his belt and tossed it into the cloud. He saw a dim, red light through the smoke and as it cleared, a small pokeball could be seen shaking in the grass. After what seemed like hours - though it couldn't have been more than twenty seconds, the pokeball rested.

"Haha!" Jack exclaimed, picking up Cyndaquil and holding his proud pokemon up, "When we get Ruby and the food I am gonna give you so many sweets!" he picked up his new Mareep and scanned it with his pokedex, the pokedex uttered:

_"Mareep, the wool pokemon. If static electricity builds in its body, its fleece doubles in volume. Touching it will shock you. Current moves: Tackle, Growl, Thundershock."_

"Ooh, sounds tough." Jack said, patting Cyndaquil who had crawled onto his shoulder. "Let's see our new friend then, Mareep, let's go!" he shouted. After a flash of red light, the pokemon stood infront of them, it had yellow wool, a blue head and blue feet. Its ears and tail had a yellow and black striped pattern. It also had an orange sphere at the end of its tail and a curly tuft of hair on its head. It made a "Bah" noise and tilted its head at the two strangers. Jack inched towards it cautouisly and reached out to touch it, "Ow!" he yelled, feeling a strong static shock from Mareep's fleece. "Well, let's get rid of some of that extra charge. Use thundershock against that tree!" he pointed to the nearest tree.

A thick, electrical blast erupted from Mareep's body, the blast hit the tree and was absorbed into the ground harmlessly. "Good." Jack said, now able to give the Mareep a pat on the head. His attention was diverted to the tree though, several thudding noises could be heard. About six Hoothoots fell to the ground, along with three Spinaraks, and a Ledyba.

"Eh...hehe... let's move on." Jack said, returning Mareep to its pokeball and quickening his pace.

Skipping ahead another few hours - Jack had lost count, the young trainer was getting pretty sick of walking. He yelled a few sounds that were more roars than words, followed by: "Why don't I have a flying pokemon!?"

"Jack!?" Jack recognised Ruby's voice as the girl came into view, running towards him.

"Where's the food!?" He yelled.

"It doesn't matter!"

"Doesn't matter!?"

"Doesn't matter!" Ruby yelled, finally reaching him, she pulled his arm, "Erm... run."

"Run?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, run."

"Why?"

"Victreebel."

"Victreebel?"

"Okay enough with the repitition!" Ruby yelled, she grabbed Jack by the collar and dragged him off. Jack noticed what they were running from as he turned around, a herd/mass/flock/army, whatever it could be described as of Victreebel were in the distance.

"What did you do!?" demanded Jack.

"Well...I erm... threw a pokeball at... one of them." She panted.

Jack sighed, "Right, come on, up here." he pointed to one of the taller trees in sight.

"Ok. Bulbasaur!" she released the seed pokemon. "Help us up this tree, buddy." Bubasaur nodded cheerfully, and then used Vine Whip to help the two climb up a taller branch - Cyndaquil sitting on Jack's shoulder. Ruby quickly returned Bulbasaur just before the Victreebel arrived. The group must have smelled something, as they came to a stop around the tree that they were all sat on. "Oh we're screwed." Ruby whispered.

"Hmm." Jack looked at the Victreebel more closely, "There mouths are wide open."

"Thanks, eagle eye." she muttered.

"Cyndaquil, use smokescreen, straight down." Cyndaquil did as told, spraying smoke straight into the Victreebels mouths, causing them to cough and splutter. The group quickly dispersed and fled. Well, most of them.

About four of them - four of the bigger, older, and presumabley more experienced Victreebels - covered their mouths with the leaves on their heads. Looking up, they sprayed a fine yellow mist at Jack and Ruby, Jack, in a frantic attempt to sheild Cyndaquil, took the worst of it while Cyndaquil, and Ruby- who was behind Jack - were practically unscathed.

"It's a Stun Spore!" Jack yelled, he then seized up and fell off of the branch, unable to move, but fully aware of what was going on, Jack braced himself for the hard ground but was saved by a pair of vines which caught him and lowered him onto the grass - Bulbasaur. Cyndaquil jumped down next to him and the confused pokemon nudged his face with its own. Ruby quickly climbed down the tree to stop the Victreebels from advancing on Jack. "Starly, come on out!" she released the starling pokemon, Bulbasaur ran to her side on her order. "Cyndaquil, Smokescreen!" she ordered. Cyndaquil looked at her hesitantly, and then back to Jack.

"Do as... she says..." Jack croaked.

_"Quil." _Cyndaquil jumped infront of Ruby and covered the Victreebels in Smokescreen again.

"Okay, Starly, Foresight and then Aerial Ace!" Ruby exclaimed. Starly's eyes glowed for a moment as it locked onto it's targets through the smoke and then it dive-bombed into the fog, after the sound of several impacts, Starly emerged from the top. As the smoke faded, all four Victreebels expelled several purple coloured clumps towards Bulbasaur and Cyndaquil - Sludge Bomb. "Razor Leaf, Bulbasaur!" Razor sharp leaves shot from Bulbasaurs sides and intercepted most of the Sludge Bomb attack and the rest of it missed harmlessly. While the Victreebels were disorientated by the residue of the sludge, Bulbasaur wrapped one of them up in Vine Whip and Starly and Cyndaquil attacked from either side using Aerial Ace and Tackle respectively. The first Victreebel fainted. Another Victreebel used Vine whip to grab Bulbasaur's Vines and toss it into the air, "Starly! Save him!" Ruby yelled. Using all of its energy, Starly grabbed Bulbasaur and only just managed to lower it safely to the ground.

With a roar, the remaining three - very aggrovated - Victreebel growled and released a Stun Spore once more. "Starly, Whirlwind!" Starly's small wings were just enough to create a gust that sent the Stun spore back at the foe. All of them had soon fallen to the floor, paralyzed. Ruby unclipped an extra pokeball from her belt, "Eh, might as well, pokeball, go!" she threw a pokeball at the Victreebel that had fainted first. A red light enveloped the captured pokemon and the pokeball fell to the floor, motionless. "Yes!" Ruby punched the air and picked up the pokeball, "Good job, guys." she congratulated the pokemon.

A short walk, a couple of Potions and a Paralyze Heal later Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil, Spinarak, Starly, Mareep and Victreebel were happily eating pokemon food and Jack was sat on the grass next to Ruby, rubbing his arms and legs.

"Uh..." Ruby said as she lay on her back on the grass. "My legs are tired."

Jack lay next to her, "Mine too."

"It's dusk, should we set up the tents?"

"Oh... I left them near Union Cave."

"You idiot!" Ruby punched him.

"Good luck hurting me, my arms are still numb from the Stun Spore," he mocked, Ruby punched him again, "Okay, that one hurt!" he paused for a few moments as he rubbed his arm and checked the map, "We're not far from the Monorail, we could take that to Goldenrod."

"Oh," Ruby sat up, "How much is it?"

"I think about £6 each, I have £8.50, how much do you have?"

"Erm," Ruby felt in her pockets and took some coins out, "30p."

"And we have one nights food."

"We're gonna starve aren't we?"

"Yup." Jack began messing around with his pokedex. "Ooh look at this!" he jacknifed up, making Ruby jump, she looked over his shoulder at the pokedex. "There's an archeologist's event on at the Ruins of Alph tomorrow! It's not far North West from here."

"Huh?" Ruby asked.

"That way. Jack pointed in a seemingly random direction, "This means markets, food, and lots of trainers to win money from!"

"Awesome!" Ruby shrieked excitedly.

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**I've been noticed that there are quite a lot of people who have favourited and subscribed to this story, but aren't reviewing, come on guys, I'd like to see what you think.**

**That aside, I liked writing this chapter, thanks for reading!**

**UPDATE: Since I got about five reviews saying people wanted this chapter to be longer, and with more at the Victreebel bit, so I've replaced it with this and will be sure to try and make future chapters longer. So remember, I am reading your reviews and they are making a difference.**


	7. It's Not About the Dark

**For those who didn't notice, I re-uploaded the last chapter after people reviewed saying they wanted more on the Victreebel, so look at that if you read the first version.

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**Chapter Seven: It's Not About The Dark, It's About What's In It.**

Jack and Ruby, having failed to reach the Ruins of Alph before nightfall, had decided to rest until morning. They had found a very small clearing in the thick forest to sleep, they needed the tree cover after losing their tents and sleeping bags. Jack had started a fire, and the two sat on either side of it, with Cyndaquil and Bulbasaur next to them. Eerie shadows were cast by the trees, looming over the ten year olds, but shadows were nothing, just shadows.

Ruby stared at the fire for a moment, the redness reflecting in her eyes, she reached for a stick and prodded the fire with it. "No!" Jack exclaimed, "You might put it out! It took me an hour to start that!"

"What? Cyndaquil still can't even use ember?"

"Nope." Jack patted Cyndaquil, "He's a late bloomer, aren't you buddy?"

_"Quil." _Cyndaquil nodded, almost proudly.

--

Hours later the two trainers were still sat around the fire, it had weakened into mere cinders, and Ruby was curled up, listening to Jack's horror story, and the pokemon were back in their pokeballs.

"So they say at the Ruins of Alph are so ancient that they're haunted you know?" Jack looked left and right and leaned closer to Ruby, beckoning her to come closer, she did so, until there noses were mere inches apart "They say people disappear in this forest. They're just walking around and then..." Spinarak then quickly dropped infront Jack's face, this along with Jack screaming: "Boo!" was enough to make Ruby scream and send her tumbling backwards. "Couldn't resist mate." he said as he helped Ruby up.

Jack looked at Spinarak and patted it's head - very hesitantly - he then muttered a thankyou to the pokemon and returned it to it's pokeball. He looked up only to see Ruby's back, disappear into the trees. "Hey, Ruby... wait! I was only-"

_"Saur!" _Bulbasaur growled at Jack, having escaped from it's pokeball, it kept Jack at a distance with it's Vine Whip before running away after it's master.

Jack sighed and released Cyndaquil, "I think I screwed that up." Cyndaquil nodded in agreement before perching itself on his lap.

"We should probably go find her." He said, standing up and putting Cyndaquil on his shoulder, "She has the last of the food."

Jack had been walking in the general direction that Ruby had left in for about ten minutes, shouting her name continuously. It was practically pitch black apart from the moon when he heard a scream - Ruby. "Ruby!?" he yelled, beginning to run towards the source of the scream. Practically blind, he jumped over logs, through brushes and into the occasional tree, untill he fell - seemingly over nothing - into the ground, which seemed to cave in underneath him. He fell a few feet, but luckily didn't feel much pain as he landed on his back.

"Ow!" He gasped as Cyndaquil fell onto his stomach, Cyndaquil apologised with a squeak as he stood up, they were in some sort of cave, and the first thing Jack noticed were the shadows, there was no source of light, but the dark brown cave walls were clearly visible and the rocks casted jet black shadows in random directions. As he looked up he couldn't see the hole that they had fallen from. Jack looked around him, "Pick a direction, Cyndaquil." he said. Cyndaquil immediately wandered off straight forwards, so he followed.

Jack then heard something from behind him and lashed around, "Cyndaquil?"

_"Cynda?"_ Cyndaquil was infront of him. Jack observed the cave, looking for anything suspicouis, then he noticed - the shadows had gone. Slightly unnerved, he unclipped a pokeball from his belt, "You stay in here, Cynda- Cyndaquil? Cyndaquil!" he yelled as he watched four shadows rise up from nothingness and crawl towards his pokemon, making a horrifying crackling noise as they enveloped the fire mouse and began to drag it into the darkness. "No! Spinarak!" he yelled, releasing his bug pokemon, "Use String Shot, save Cyndaquil!" web immediately shot from Spinarak's mouth, wrapping around Cyndaquil but going straight through the shadows, not affecting them.

Spinarak began to panic as the shadows proved to be too strong for it, as did Jack. Before he could grab the pokemon, it was dragged into the blackness by its own web, along with Cyndaquil.

A second later, the shadows were gone. Jack looked for his own shadow, but saw nothing. The cave, with no obvious light source became clearly visable again. "No!" Jack shouted to no one in particular, he ran forwards, hoping that he would somehow find Cyndaquil - and Spinarak, to a somewhat lesser extent. He fell over again, this time he was sure that something had tripped him over. As he hit the ground, he found himself in pitch blackness, he put his hand to his face but could see nothing.

"Oh, God!" he put his face in his hands, thinking of the possibility that he had somehow been blinded, "Wait! Mareep!" he called the wool pokemon as he released it. "Act as though you're using Thundershock, but concentrate the energy to your tail." he heard a _"Bah."_ from Mareep and then there was a flash of light. The room was illuminated by the orb on Mareep's tail, it had successfully used the Flash technique. Jack sighed in relief, his vision was fine.

Then he saw them. A thousand eyes about the size of Jack's head surrounded them, inches away from him and Mareep, staring. "Quick turn it off! Turn it off!" he hissed desperately, Mareep did so and everything returned to pitch black. Jack waited for a few seconds, trying to breathe silently and keep a hand on Mareep so it wouldn't get lost, nothing happened, "Ok, use Flash again." he patted Mareep's soft fur. He braced himself as Mareep's tail lit up the cave walls. The eyes with many strange shapes were gone. Something then caught his eye, on the cave wall. It looked like writing, but Jack couldn't decipher it:

**Picture - [**http:// . com/art/An-Unown-Message-142084414** -Take out the spaces] (Take a look, it took me way too long to draw that, and by the way, the picture is much better quality if you download it)**

"Ah!" Jack exclaimed as he remembered that his PokeGear had a camera on it, he got it out of his bag and pointed it at the strange markings. After a flash of light, he had the picture, and put the PokeGear back in his bag. "Okay come on, Mareep." Jack patted the wool pokemon. He turned around but froze as an eerie voice rattled inside his ears:

_"Uuuunnnnooooowwwwnnnn..."_

Jack span around at a speed that would rival a Hitmontop, but there was nothing behind him. Clutching his chest, he turned back to the writing on the wall. The writing was gone. Jack took a step back, "Come on Mareep." he tapped the wool pokemon and ran, Mareep was right behind him. They ran for a few minutes until Jack became tired. He panted and leant against the wall, then looked down to the floor in front of him. Footprints.

"What?" Jack kneeled down and looked closely at the footprints, they were his own. "I've been going in circles!?" he yelled.

_"Bah." _replied Mareep.

"I know, I know." Jack pulled himself up. "Right, enough messing. Use thundershock at the cieling of the cave, Mareep!"

A blast of yellow energy erupted from Mareep, illuminating the cave. The roof of the cave cracked and part of it fell off. "Again!" Jack ordered. Mareep did as told and the cieling began to crumble, leaving a hole at the top. "Good job, buddy." Jack said, returning Mareep to its pokeball. He climbed up the debris and pulled himself through the cave cieling, sadly however, he was still in a cave. "How far did I fall? ...this must be a whole system of tunnels." he muttered to himself. "Gah!" he screamed as he found himself surrounded by the same giant eyes, seeming oddly familiar to the inscription that he had seen on the cave wall.

_"Uuuunnnnooooowwwwnnnn..."_ the strange drone sounded again, coming from the strange creatures.

Jack stood perfectly still, watching the monsters orbit around him. He didn't breathe, he didn't blink. He slowly reached for Mareep's pokeball. As he felt his hand brush against the metal surface, he seized the pokeball and launched it in the air. Before Mareep hit the ground, Jack yelled, "Thundershock! Every direction!"

Mareep did as told. A blast of energy went in all directions, barely missing Jack but hitting almost every one of the strange pokemon, however, with Mareep's power so greatly spread out it did not have much effect. It merely made the strange creatures angry. "Ah!" he yelled, looking around for a way out. "Looks like we're screwed, Mareep."

_"Quil." _The high pitched squeak was accompanied by a strange clicking noise that Jack recognised to be his pokemon.

Jack looked down to see his beloved Cyndaquil, and somewhat less beloved Spinarak looking up at him. "Haha! You're alright!" Jack shouted in joy, "Okay then, Spinarak, Night Shade. Cyndaquil, Tackle and Mareep, Thundershock!" The three pokemon attacked the unknown creatures, a few of them seemed to teleport away, while one of them fainted. after a few more attacks, Jack had to come to the conclusion that there were too many to fight, Spinarak and Cyndaquil seemed exhausted for some reason.

Their saviour arrived, in the form of a ball of dark energy - about the size of a basketball. The orb flew from nowhere and exploded in the middle of the monsters, making half of them flee.

--

To step back an hour or so, Ruby and Jack were sat around the dying fire, Jack was reciting a horrific tale to Ruby, "So they say at the Ruins of Alph are so ancient that they're haunted you know?" Jack looked left and right and leaned closer to Ruby, beckoning her to come closer, she did so, until there noses were mere inches apart "They say people disappear in this forest. They're just walking around and then..." Spinarak then quickly dropped infront Jack's face, this along with Jack screaming: "Boo!" was enough to make Ruby scream and send her tumbling backwards. "Couldn't resist mate." he said as he helped Ruby up.

Jack looked at Spinarak and patted it's head - very hesitantly - he then muttered a thankyou to the pokemon and returned it to it's pokeball. He looked up only to see Ruby's back, disappear into the trees. "Hey, Ruby... wait! I was only-"

_"Saur!" _Bulbasaur growled at Jack, having escaped from it's pokeball, it kept Jack at a distance with it's Vine Whip before running away after it's master.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Ruby stormed through the dark forest, completely ignoring the strange creaks and noises. She walked around for a while and found somewhere where the floor looked dry. After sitting down, she looked at her hands, they were still shaking slightly.

_"Bulba?"_ the croaky voiced pokemon reassured her. She picked it up and cuddled it.

"Maybe I over reacted." she muttered.

_"Bulba." _Bulbasaur replied.

That very second, Bulbasaur was tugged from Ruby's grip by some sort of.. shadow. The shadow wrapped around Bulbasaur and began to tug it towards the pitch black darkness of the bushes. Ruby screamed.

Jack's voice immediately sounded afterwards: "Ruby!?", but the voice was quiet, Jack must have been far away, and Ruby had bigger problems to deal with.

"Starly!" after a flash of red light, the starling pokemon was released, it attempted to tackle the solid shadow, but just passed straight through it. "Alright then, Foresight, then Aerial Ace!" Ruby ordered. Starly's eyes glowed red as it locked onto the shadow creature, and with a surprisingly agressive squawk, threw itself beak first at the shadow, hitting it directly. The shadow flew back and took form, it was a dark bluish-green ghost-like pokemon. It had a red "necklace" and flowing hair and it's eyes were yellow with red irises.

_"Misdreavus, the Screech Pokémon. Misdreavus are extremely Mischievous and like to cry out at night just to startle people." _Her pokedex stated as she took it out. The Misdreavus looked quite shocked a being flushed out, and hesitated a little bit too long.

"Bulbasaur, Vine Whip!" Ruby cried. After a lashing from Bulbasaur, the frankly gutted Misdreavus fled, sinking into the floor. "That's right!" Ruby shouted after it, "Go and steal someone elses pokemon!"

Virtually unshaken, and somewhat proud of her last battle, Ruby walked around for a while, fighting the occasional few pokemon to train Bulbasaur, when they had both gotten tired, she looked at the clock on her PokeGear. After deciding that she had let Jack worry for long enough, she returned on her way to the "camp" - pretty much just the fire and some blankets. It didn't take long to get back, but she found that Jack wasn't there. "Well he can't have gone far, his blanket's still there." she said to Bulbasaur as she pointed at Jack's navy blue blanket. Although she had to admit that something seemed wrong, Bulbasaur was whimpering slightly, also.

_"Cyndaquil."_ the slightly slurred squeak made Ruby jump, but as she turned around she was comforted by the sight of her friends starter pokemon, Cyndaquil sat perfectly still a few metres away, just in the shadows.

"Cyndaquil!" she kneeled down and hugged it, making Bulbasaur a little jealous, but Cyndaquil growled and bit her. She pushed it back instinctively but the pokemon kept coming, forcing her to pick it up and throw it away into a bush. "I bet this is a joke isn't it Jack?" she laughed, "Well, Bulbsau- Bulbasaur!" she shrieked as she turned arount to see Bulbasaur struggling in a thick web, with Jack's Spinarak crawling down towards it. She looked around desperately for a way out, but everything outside ten feet of her was in a sudden fog, she would have no idea where she was going, and now, Cyndaquil was on it's way back.

As Bulbasaur saw it's master in danger, it reacted immediately, using a Razor Leaf attack to free itself from the web and fend off Spinarak, and then a Vine Whip to toss the unsuspecting Cyndaquil back into the fog, the dark, thick, purple fog. "This doesn't look like normal fog..." Ruby said, releasing Starly, "Foresight, then Aerial Ace, on the fog!" Starly dived into the fog after its eyes flashed red, making the fog receed. Like before, the fog seemed to squeal and take shape, the Misdreavus from before was revealed, looking completely flabbergasted. Cyndaquil and Spinarak were returning, and Ruby assumed that the only way to release them from Misdreavus' control was to knock them out, (she had seen it on a film once) but she didn't wasnt to resort to that, her main target was the rather angry Misdreavus. "Victreebel! Use Stun Spore on Spinarak and Cyndaquil!" A plume of yellow dust was spat from Victreebel's large mouth in two directions, covering their targets and straight afterwards, Bulbasaur and Victreebel used Vine Whip to restrain Cyndaquil and Spinarak, leaving it to be Starly versus Misdreavus.

After using Foresight, Starly could freely attack Misdreavus with any attack, it lauched itself at the ghost pokemon many times, sometimes hitting it, but the much more agile Misdreavus was able to dodge the worst of the attacks. Misdreavus put some space between itself and Starly and formed a ball of dark energy, after a second or two it blasted the energy towards Starly: a Shadow Ball attack. Starly failed to dodge, but the attack had no effect, the Normal-type part of Starly made it immune to Ghost-type attacks. Misdreavus had such a strange expression on its face, a very moody one, almost cute, but it then used what Ruby recognised to be a Psywave attack. Starly dodge most of it, but undoubtedly took damage, it flew crookedly into a tree and fell down, but quickly shook the confusion off and returned to the air, using Aerial Ace and hitting Misdreavus directly. Misdreavus' face became even more "huffy", it seemed to be getting more annoyed rather than taking damage. Starly landed in a tree for a moment to let its wings get a short rest, while Misdreavus began to glow yellow, as it emitted a crackling sound.

"Oh no..." Ruby muttered, noticing what was about to happen, "Starly, run! Bulbasaur, grab Misdreavus!" Starly took off from the branch, just missing Misdreavus' discharge of electrical energy; Thunderbolt. Bulbasaur took a Vine off of Cyndaquil to help Starly, but the second it did so the fire mouse began to struggle wildly, forcing Bulbasaur to return its grip to it.

Starly flew in circles around Misdreavus, narrowly avoiding the blasts of electricity - for a while. The tired starling pokemon slowed down for a moment, and this was all it took for Misdreavus to get a direct it, a super effective hit. Starly, pretty much knocked out, fell out of the air, hit a tree and rolled down into a bush. "Starly!" Ruby yelled, ducking under a Psywave from Misdreavus as she ran to her pokemon. After kneeling down and picking up the small pokemon, she cradled it in her arms, it wasn't knocked out, but injured. Despite this, the stubborn pokemon removed itself from Ruby's grip and slowly took to the air. Misdreavus was prepared to attack but flinched because of the blinding light that had just erupted from Starly, Ruby watched in awe as she watched her Starly grow much bigger, its beak grew and it developed a crest on its head. She took her pokedex out.

_"Staravia, the evolved form of Starly. Current Moves: Tackle, Aerial Ace, Foresight, Wing Attack."_

"Haha!" Ruby laughed as she saw her pokemon become more invigorated, "Staravia, Foresight and Wing Attack!" on her order, with a speed unparrelel to anything that Ruby had seen in her life, Staravia - its eyes glowing red - slammed its wings straight into the stunned Misdreavus. The ghost type fainted immediatley.

"You're mine!" Ruby clasped a pokeball off of her belt and threw it at the Misdreavus, which became covered in a red light before going inside the pokeball. The pokeball shook, and eventually rested, making the clicking sound that told Ruby that the capture had been successful. "You were awesome Staravia!" she grabbed the bird and squoze it, the pokemon let out a tired chirp. "You can have a little rest." she sent Staravia back to its pokeball.

Bulbasaur and Victreebel released their grip on Cyndaquil and Spinarak and the two pokemon seemed fine, if not a little confused and tired. "Hey guys." Ruby went over to them, returning Bulbasaur and Victreebel, "Where's Jack?"

_"Cynda!" _Cyndaquil squeaked, remembering Jack, Spinarak looked equally worried. The two pokemon ran away too quickly for Ruby to follow them, but she headed in their general direction. It wasn't long before she came to a rather large hole in the ground, she was about to ignore it, but she heard a faint yell from within it:

"Thundershock! Every direction!" - Jack.

With some help from Bulbasaurs vines, Ruby managed to climb into the cave and ran towards the source of Jack's shout. Once she was near, she could see Jack thanks to Mareep's Thundershocks and saw that Spinarak and Cyndaquil were already with him, fighting off strangely shaped pokemon. "Let's try... Misdreavus!" she released the ghost pokemon, which looked at her and then away, with a huffy face. "Shadow Ball!" she ordered. Misdreavus did nothing. Ruby paused for a moment and looked through her pockets, she found a stale biscuit and presented it to Misdreavus, saying, "C'mon.... there's a biccy in it for you!"

Misdreavus was surprisingly pleased with the concept of eating a stale biscuit, and co-operated, creating a ball of dark energy - about the size of a basketball - and sent it towards the group of unknown pokemon.

--

The orb flew from nowhere and exploded in the middle of the monsters, making half of them flee. Jack turned to see Ruby running towards him, "Ruby, what the heck are-!?" Ruby grabbed his hand, "Return your pokemon. Come on!" Jack returned the three pokemon and Ruby dragged him away from the group of monsters, Jack looked up to see a strange ghost type pokemon, it looked almost like a girl. The ghost looked at Ruby, who ordered it to do a shadow ball again and to Jack's amazement, it did as told. The ghost type Shadow Ball had a great effect on the strange creatures, and they all fled.

Both trainers were out of breath, and at that moment Jack had only enough energy to pat Ruby on the back and give her a thumbs up. Ruby turned to leave, but was stopped, "Wait a sec." Jack said, heading deeper into the cave. He took a pokeball from his belt and found the pokemon that he had knocked out and threw the pokeball at it, the pokeball hit its target, absorbing it in a red light and then shook for a few moments and rested, Jack picked it up and scanned it with his Pokedex.

_"Unown, the Symbol Pokémon. Unown are said to have existed since ancient times. There are many in form and shape but little is known about this mysterious Pokémon. In large groups, they are thought to be able to bend reality." _The Pokedex stated. Jack's Unown was a sort of "O" shape, Jack noticed.

"Bend reality..." Ruby repeated.

"That might be why this cave is so messed up." said Jack.

"How's it messed up?"

"You have no idea, Ruby. No idea."

The two eventually made it out of the cave and back to the camp, and after much effort, Jack had got the fire roaring once again. "Not that sitting around this fire isn't interesting Ruby," Jack said out of the blue, "but I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Okay, me too I guess." Ruby said, trying to keep her eyes off Misdreavus, who was silently floating behind Jack's head, "Goodnight."

"Night." Jack said, he turned around to see Misdreavus right in his face. Misdreavus screamed so loudly and at such a high pitch that every Hoothoot in the vicinity nearly had a heart attack This of course, made Jack scream, he tried to push Misdreavus backwards, but his hands went straight through the ghost, making him fall backwards, setting his t-shirt on fire. Jack ran around for a few seconds and then yanked his t-shirt of and stammped the fire out. After clutching his heart for a few seconds, he looked at Ruby.

"You alright, mate?"

"Do I bloody look alright!?" Jack shouted, making Ruby flinch. He composed himself after a few seconds, "I probably deserved that didn't I?"

"Yup."

"Goodnight, Ruby." Jack muttered, covering himself in his blanket.

"Nighty night." Ruby replied, exchanging silent giggles with her Misdreavus.

* * *

**There's a nice, long chapter for you. Be sure to take a look at the picture on DeviantArt, and anyone who manages to decipher it, keep it to yourself please.**

**So, I've made this chapter a lot longer than usual because of all of the reviews saying they wanted chapters longer, but I doubt I can keep up 4000 words per chapter although I'll keep trying to make them quite long.**

**I deserve a few reviews, for all of my effort, don't you think?**

**Oh, almost forgot: Happy Halloween! And keep an eye on the shadows...  
**


	8. Author's Note

**To readers,**

**I've screwed something up with the reviews after I deleted the first chapter, so I'm posting this one to make up for it and get everything back to normal.**

**So any reviews that you would have left on the Halloween Chapter (Chapter 7, I think), leave them on this one.**

**Last thing, the reason for deleting the first chapter is that I don't want any more OC's submitted, I have plenty, most of which will be involved in some future chapters.**

**Thanks for reading the story, hope you all like it so far ^^  
**


	9. Gambling

**Chapter Eight: Gambling is the sure way of getting nothing from something.**

The Ruins of Alph were full of stalls and merchants, some selling fruit, some selling pokeball accessories, some selling fascinating artefacts from the ruins. Well, they were fascinating to Jack, who went around admiring the place – unable to buy anything with his £8.50. Ruby was elsewhere, looking for weak looking trainers. What quickly caught Ruby's eye was a small crowd of people, most of which had pokeballs strapped to their belts or elsewhere. Shoving her way through to the centre, she found a girl in the centre, she had just returned her pokemon and her last opponent had just disappeared back into the crowd.

"Come on, does no one else want a battle?" The girl was a little shorter than Ruby, with lumpy, black hair. She was wearing a black, lace outfit and silver bracelets. Her eyes were brown. No one responded to her, she had obviously wiped out the trainer in her last battle. No problem.

"I'll take you on." Ruby stepped out into the centre, facing the trainer.

"Great!" Her friendliness surprised Ruby, "I'm Elaine. Three on three?"

"Yeah, ok. And I'm Ruby." Ruby said, she reached for a pokeball and took a few steps backwards. "Staravia! Let's go!" In a flash of red, Staravia was flying in the air, it came to rest just in front of her feet.

"Just caught this one today. Natu, come on out!" Elaine released that small, green bird pokemon. It chirped and rested not far from Staravia.

"Hey, how about we make this a little more interesting?" Ruby asked, remembering her money predicament.

"Mm?"

"Let's say the loser has to give the winner £5."

"Oh a bet!" Elaine grinned. "You're on! I'll go first, Natu, use Future Sight!"

Natu's eyes flashed purple, but then nothing, "Ha!" Ruby laughed, figuring that the move must have failed. "Wing attack!" On the the command, Staravia's wings glowed as it raced towards Natu and an immense speed, the small Natu almost dodged, but the speed was almost impossible to avoid. It was flung into the air before it began to take flight. Both trainers ordered the next attack at the same time.

"Natu, foresight!"

"Staravia use aerial ace!"

Staravia once again flew towards Natu at great speed, but once Natu had used foresight it dodged, then grabbing onto Staravia's tuft of hair. "Peck!" Elaine ordered. Natu brutally pecked Staravia's head about five times, all critical hits. Ruby had to think fast.

"Spin!" Ruby yelled, Staravia complied, spinning and eventually throwing Natu off. Natu hit the ground hard, Ruby ordered Staravia to do a tackle to finish it off, and the move worked. Natu fainted and Staravia landed confidently, then, something strange happened. Staravia fainted.

"Wha...?" Ruby was flabbergasted.

"Future sight." Elaine said proudly, "It takes its toll eventually."

"Right." Ruby said, fairly irritated. She released Bulbasaur, he'd be reliable. In return, Elaine released a Tangela, and explained that it was nicknames Ruby couldn't help but notice that Elaine's hair was remarkably similar to the Tangela's, but she couldn't let herself be distracted. Both trainers first ordered a vine whip attack, and both pokemon's vines locked together in a battle of strength.

"Come on Bulbasaur!" Ruby encouraged the struggling pokemon. Bulbasaur started to lift the heavier pokemon up, slowly.

Tannie's feet were almost off the ground, but before Bulbasaur could fully lift it, Elaine shouted, "Use Ingrain!" more vines came from Tannie and rooted it to the ground, making it impossible for Bulbasuar to lift. Tannie, now with an energy boost from the nutrients in the ground, overpowered Bulbasaur and tossed it into the air. "Now, sleeping powder!"

Bulbasaur was powerless and Ruby was powerless to help him. Sparkling dust flew at Bulbasaur, making him fall asleep, even when he hit the ground, it didn't wake him up. All it took was a well aimed vine whip and Bulbasaur fainted. Ruby returned him, disappointed. He didn't even get a hit.

Ruby then let out Victreebell, and did something that she hated, but Jack was rather good at. She analysed the possibilities.

Tannie was rooted to the ground, unable to move. However, after drawing energy from the earth, it was now stronger than it was at the beginning of the battle. Ruby snapped her fingers, she had an idea.

"Victreebel, use toxic!" Victreebel quickly coughed up purple, poisonous acid that sprayed toward Tannie. Tannie quickly knocked it away with its vines and the poison hit the floor around it, just as intended.

Elaine yelled more orders, "Good, now Tannie use vine whip again!" Tannie didn't seem to hear, it looked dizzy. "What?"

"Yes! It's ingrain has absorbed the toxic poison in the ground!" Ruby was proud of herself, and Victreebel. "Now razor leaf!"

Victreebel shot a barrage of razor sharp leaves at Tannie, these damaged Tannie but also cut the roots that tied it to the ground, leaving Victreebel able to toss it to the air and then into the ground with vine whip. Tannie fainted.

"Cool. Good tactic." Elaine smiled. She threw her third pokeball declaring, "Let's go Coal!" A Chimchar emerged from the pokeball and assumed a fighting stance. "Use fire spin!"

Coal's superior speed allowed it to make its move first. An unavoidable ring of fire blasted toward Victreebel, hitting it directly. Victreebel recovered quickly and responded with a vine whip, but Chimchar was too fast. On Elaine's order it grabbed the vine and used flame wheel, tangling up and burning the vine before getting a full on, super effective hit square in Victreebel's face, the pokemon could take no more. Victreebel fainted.

"Yes!" Elaine cheered, hugging Coal and then returning it to its pokeball. Ruby sighed and returned Victreebel.

"Well done. I'll be off then. Bye." Ruby turned around and began to hurry away, but felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was Elaine, "I believe you owe me £5."

"Heh... oh yeah I'd forgot." Ruby fumbled around in her pocket and pulled out 30p. "...my friend has money."

Jack was in the centre of the stalls, he had just bought a charm that was of an Unown like his for £2.50, said to bring good luck. That was rubbish of course, but it was a charming object, he clipped it to his belt. The merchant was telling him a story, "They say that there are pokemon around here like that, in fact... every letter of the alphabet is in the form of..." he looked from side to side suspiciously, "...the Unown."

"I couldn't imagine." Jack muttered.

"Many don't believe in them, but I do... I even saw one once!"

"Must have been amazing." Jack tried to act polite, but took the first opportunity to get out of the conversation, "Oh, look, my friend is here." He turned to Ruby, who had just arrived, she had brought a stranger.

Elaine spoke first, to Ruby, "Oh you have a boyfriend! That's nice!"

Jack responded first, "No, were not- who are you anyway?"

"This is Elaine." Ruby explained, "And can I borrow £5?"

"What? No! Why?" Jack protested.

"I bet Elaine £5 that I could beat her in a battle but I lost. £5 please." She put her hands out and smiled cutely.

Jack rolled his eyes, "How about we go double or nothing?"

"What?" Ruby whined, "You're Cyndaquil can't even-"

"Late bloomer."

"Well fine but don't lose the last of our money!"

"I won't." Jack said. He turned to Elaine, "Up for it?"

"So if I win, I get £10, and if you win, you get to keep the £5?"

"Correct."

A couple of hours later, Elaine's pokemon had recovered and both her and Jack were ready for a battle. Quite a crowd had gathered before the battle started and both trainers released their pokemon at the same time.

"Mareep!"

"Natu!"

Natu hovered in the air a few feet from Mareep, both ready to fight. "Ladies first." Jack said.

"Future sight and then peck!" Elaine ordered. Natu's eyes flashed as it used future sight and it then flew towards Mareep with its beak glowing. Putting itself within range of a thundershock. The blast of yellow energy flew from Mareep and hit Natu dead on, this super effective hit along with the impact of hitting the ground were too much. The small bird fainted.

"Amateur." Jack said, annoying Elaine, "Natu would have been safe in the air, but bringing it in close gave Mareep the opportunity to get a super effective hit."

"Amateur? Wait and see, there's a surprise in store for your Mareep." Elaine smiled.

"Oh, the future sight, I almost forgot." Jack returned Mareep, "That should solve that." He released Spinarak, and Elaine sent out Coal the Chimchar.

"How's this for close range? Coal, fire spin!" Elaine yelled.

"Dodge with string shot!" Jack ordered.

Coal, in a wheel of fire sped towards Spinarak, but Spinarak used its web pull itself onto a nearby tree branch. "Now, scary face and then night shade!" Jack ordered. Both of these moves were unavoidable, the scary face made it impossible for Elaine to return Coal and the night shade did some good damage.

"Ember!" Elaine shouted.

Coal's speed was surprising, a fireball hit Spinarak dead on, knocking it out of the tree. Coal used flame wheel to intercept it in mid air but Spinarak recovered, crawling back up the tree and leaving Coal to hit it dead on. Spinarak tied up the disorientated Chimchar with string shot.

"Oh no you don't. Use fire spin, Coal!"

Coal burned the web to cinders instantly and hit Spinarak with an exceptional fire spin. Spinarak fainted.

Elaine smiled. Jack didn't, he was taking this battle very seriously, his defeat from Crysta a few days ago was shameful, and they needed this money for the Monorail.

"Right, let's go Mareep!" Mareep used a thundershock attack. Coal jumped out of the way and responded with a flame wheel, which was met with another thundershock. There was a small explosion where the two blasts met, making both pokemon fall back. Coal was the first to recover, and sped toward Mareep, Mareep recovered miliseconds after, and ran in for a tackle. The two collided, Mareep obviously took more damage, but the lighter Chimchar was knocked into the air. Vulnerable. Jack ordered Mareep to use thundershock one more time and it was a direct hit. Coal hit the ground hard.

Coal wasn't finished yet though, on Elaine's command it dug into the ground, leaving Mareep confused. Jack panicked, he had no clue what to do! Before either could react, Coal burst from the ground and got Mareep with a super effective hit. Mareep tried to hit Coal with a thundershock again, but within a few seconds it was back in the ground. "After it!" Jack yelled. The hole dug by Coal was just big enough for Mareep to jump into, his next order was quick, before Coal or Elaine had chance to counter attack. "Flash, and then use thunderbolt!"

The two trainers could only watch the hole where the two pokemon had gone underground. A bright flash came from the hole, closely followed by a scream from the surprised Chimchar and then massive sparks of electricity. Mareep climbed out of the hole unhurt, on its back an unconsious Chimchar.

"Coal!" Elaine moaned, "Right. Now it gets serious." Tannie the Tangela was her last Pokemon, she ordered it to use ingrain straight away, making Tangela instantly become more energetic. It then picked up Mareep with vine whip. Mareep responded with thunder shock. It didn't do much damage, but forced Tangela to drop Mareep, Mareep landed fairly comfortably. "Now, Tannie! Solarbeam!"

On the word Jack knew he didn't have long, solarbeam took a while to charge but had deadly power. "Keep using thundershock!" he ordered. Mareep sent a continuous bolt of electricity into Tannie, slowly whittling down it's health with the not-very-effective attack. Once the solarbeam was charged, however, it was brutal. A green blast from Tannie rocketed into Mareep, sending it flying backwards, Mareep fainted.

Jack had a tough decision. Should he use Cyndaquil? Which despite the type advantage, had failed to produce a successful flame and would undoubtedly be scared of the rather large crowd around them. Or, should he use Unown? The mysterious pokemon that he had no idea about. He looked at Unown's data on the pokedex. Only one move: "Hidden power".

While he was making this decision, Tannie was drawing more energy from the ground. So he took a risk, "Unown! Use hidden power!" the crowd gasped as the "O" shaped Unown emerged, making Jack feel a little self conscious. There were whispers as the Unown sqeaked, looked around, and then vanished.

There were a tense few moments, and Jack felt himself turning red. A few laughs came from the crowd, and Elaine grinned. He looked to Ruby, she had her palm on her face.

Unown reappeared suddenly, with a squeak and a flash of light, right in front of Tannie. Elaine's smile was wiped from her face as Unown blasted Tannie away, the powerful blast combined with the pure shock of Unown's sudden appearance was too much for Tannie, it fainted.

"Yes!" Jack and Ruby shouted simultaneously. Ruby hi-hi fived Jack, and said, "Monorail, here we come!"

"Not yet." Jack said, "We still need more money..."

Elaine interrupted, "You should enter the tournament tomorrow, winner gets £100."

Jack grinned, "No admission fee?"

"None."

"Right! Up for it Ruby?" Jack turned to the pink haired girl, who nodded, excited.

"Like I said; Monorail, here we come!"


End file.
